FWB-Choctaw charity game to benefit Palmer

Viking or Indian, it doesn't matter. His cause is bigger, so much so that it's uniting the crosstown rivals.

When several Choctaw and Fort Walton Beach alumni heard Palmer was spending time recovering from chemotherapy sessions by watching movies on Netflix from his hospital bed, the group came together to try to make the experience at least somewhat better for the 14-year-old.

In a day and a half, the group raised enough money to buy him an iPad and Beats by Dre head phones.

“This town, when there’s a need and it’s recognized, these people respond,” said Jeff McDonald, a 1995 Choctaw alumnus. “It doesn’t matter which high school. Everyone responds together.”

On Saturday at Choctaw, McDonald’s nonprofit Impact Emerald Coast will host a charity event, Hoops for Hope, for Palmer and his family. The main attraction will be an Indians vs. Vikings alumni basketball game. All proceeds from ticket sales and raffles will go to help paying the Palmer’s medical expenses.

There will be a food truck with BBQ food in the Choctaw parking lot at starting at 1 p.m., and the basketball game will tip off after 2 p.m. Over 50 Indian and Viking alumni are set to play.

Tickets, which are available at nwfhoopsforhope.com, cost $5. Raffle tickets will cost $5 per ticket or five for $20.

The 14-year-old Palmer, a former Pryor Middle School student who will be a freshman at Choctaw this coming year, found out he had stage III lymphoma two and a half months ago when he went to a doctor’s appointment with what his family thought was pneumonia.

McDonald hosted a Hoops For Hope event for a similar cause back in 2014. That event raised over $9,000.

“We know that as a community we can come together and exceed that amount,” McDonald said. “And do a small part of easing the financial burden and offer some hope in Xavier’s fight.”

That year an Indians men’s alumni team beat a Vikings men’s alumni team in overtime.

This year the game will include six six-minute periods, with men’s and women’s alumni teams alternating each period.

Said McDonald, “The hope and desire is to help ease the burden, even a little bit."